Tutorial last updated: 5/19/2009

Hello everyone,

I recently completed the somewhat monumental task of getting a solid OS X Leopard install working on my Dell XPS 1330. This project of mine was not, in my opinion, easy. I am a seasoned computer user who is quite affluent in the Linux, Unix, and Windows worlds, and yet, I had quite a bit of difficulty getting OS X up and going. There is no real central information repository for getting OSx86 working nor is there any real place for all of OSx86's various acronyms and naming conventions to be explained. This guide will attempt to remedy that situation and guide the end user to getting an (almost) fully functional Hackintosh.

My system:

Dell XPS 1330 with the LED backlit screen
320 GB 7200 RPM WD Scorpio Black in AHCI mode
nVidia 8400M GS 128 MB
4 GB 667 mhz RAM
9 cell battery
OS X Leopard 10.5.6
Dell Wireless 1505
Intel Wireless 4965 (does not work yet)
Broadcom Wired BMC5907 (does not work yet)

Please note: shutdown and restart DO NOT WORK. You must wait for the screen to turn black and then manually shut the machine down. There is no known fix for this yet, including the netkas sleep kernel. This is the MOST up to date information. When/If we get it working, I will update this tutorial accordingly.

Getting Help

1. First and foremost SEARCH. Please research your problems before posting here. It is rather annoying to continually answer the same questions.

2. Post in this thread or in macgirl's Dell Compilation thread. Someone will get back to you in a reasonable amount of time.

3. Go on IRC. irc.osx86.hu. If you need an IRC client I use Chatzilla for Firefox. Look in the #insanelymac or #osx86 channels.

Tip: When searching for help on this forum, don't use the forum search. It is worthless. Use Google instead. For example, to search for information regarding Dell XPS 1330 laptops, use this search string:

Dell XPS 1330 site:forum.insanelymac.com

See that "site" part? That limits the Google search to only these forums. You can find more information faster using this search method.


Getting Started

Now let us get started. There are, right now, many ways of installing OS X. They are as follows:

1. iAtkos -> a modifed version of OS X that is intended for SSE3 Intel CPUs only
2. Kalyway -> another modified version of OS X that is intended for modern Intel and AMD CPUs
3. Leo4All -> a third modified version of OS X that is intended for "all" meaning all Intel and AMD cpus with SSE2 or higher
4. iDeneb -> Another third party version of OS X. I don't have personal experience with it but have heard good things.
5. Vanilla -> using a retail copy of OS X that will only work with the latest Intel SSE3 CPUs
6. iPC -> a modified version of OS X that supports Intel and AMD cpus with SSE2 or higher

All of these distributions can be obtained from the usual places, primarily the Green Demon and the Bay of Pirates. Even if you use a modified distribution, I highly encourage you to purchase a copy of OS X. This operating system is very polished and Apple does deserve some money for their efforts.

For the purpose of this tutorial we will be using iAtkos. This is mostly because I have personally been unable to get any of the other three methods to work properly on my machine. This does not mean that they do not work, however. I have seen several reports of other forum members successfully installing the other methods. I encourage you to use iAtkos 4. iAtkos 2 will work just fine but using iAtkos 4 saves us some updating later on. If you do use iAtkos 2, I will add some additional information on how to get it updated to the latest version of OS X.

Update: I have been running a retail install of OS X for awhile now. This guide is updated for a retail install as well.

I HIGHLY encourage everyone to do a retail installation of OS X instead of using a pre-modified distribution. You can just as easily "obtain" a retail OS X disk as you can a modified disk (although I still encourage you to buy it). The M1330 and M1530 can run a retail distribution just fine. This type of installation will cause the least amount of headaches in the future in terms of updating. Also, most power users here (the ones who offer 99% of the support) run retail installs and may not be familiar with the inner workings of the modified distributions. This means you are more likely to get help if you need it and we are more likely to know what's going on with broken systems.

Burning OS X

Ok. This applies to everyone but Vanilla installers. When you get your distribution of choice you will need to burn it to a DVD. Your download will include a file with the name of the distribution plus the extension .iso. This is an image of the DVD. There several free programs that can burn this ISO to a dvd. I will include links to two below. In either case, you need to choose the "Burn image to disk" option in the program NOT create a data DVD with the ISO on it. If you simply drag the ISO onto the DVD, the resulting burn will not be bootable and you will just have created another coaster.

Infrarecorder
ImgBurn

This next step applies to Vanilla users but may be a good idea for everyone else. Download my boot cd image from the bottom of this post. This is essential for installing Vanilla OS X and is useful for everyone else later. Burn it to a CD the same way you did the DVD ISO for OS X. Now on to installation!

Installing OS X

Insert your OS X DVD into your DVD drive unless you are a Vanilla user. If you are installing Vanilla, insert my boot CD into the drive. Turn on the computer and boot from the DVD drive. Everyone should eventually get to a prompt where it tells you to press any key for boot options.

Vanilla users now need to eject their boot CD and insert their retail Leopard DVD. WAIT FOR THE DISK TO FULLY SPIN UP!! Now press enter. Vanilla users will see a prompt for some number. This number corresponds to the device ID of device you wish to boot from. The optical drive is usually 82.

Everyone else can just press enter to start the OS X installation wizard. Wait awhile while it boots up. If you get a message saying you need to restart your computer, do what it says but this time at the boot prompt, press a key to enter a boot option and use the boot option -v. This will start OS X in verbose mode and will allow you troubleshoot why your installer is not loading. More on troubleshooting down below.

If/When you eventually get the OS X installer started click through the menus until you see the "Tools" menu at the top of your screen. Under tools you will see a Disk Utility option. Open Disk Utility. We are now going to partition our hard disk. This tutorial will NOT cover dual booting. I do not dual boot my laptop and simply run Linux and Windows in a VMWare Fusion VM. However, there are plenty of tutorials on these forums on how to dual boot. Please reference them if you plan on dual booting.

When disk utility opens you should see your hard disk on the left hand side. Please select it and go to the "Erase" tab. From here set the volumen format to "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)", name the drive, and hit "Erase". Once that is done go to the "Partition" tab. We need to partition the drive into one that uses what is called a GUID Partition Table. Under Volume Scheme select "1 partition". Click on the "Options" button at the bottom of the screen and choose the GUID option. Ensure the name and format are the same as before and then hit "Apply". The volume should now be partitioned properly. You may now close Disk Utility.

Do not select "Mac OS Extended Case-Sensitive/Journeled" This file system is NOT supported by Chameleon 1.0.11 and Adobe products will not install on a drive formatted in this file system. Just format in a Mac OS Extended Journeled file system. You don't really need case sensitivity.

For more on GUID Partition Tables, see here.

IF YOU WANT TO DO AN MBR INSTALLATION THEN GO TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SECOND POST AND READ TALISMAN'S GUIDE ON THE SUBJECT. IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT AN MBR INSTALLATION IS/CARE ONE WAY OR THE OTHER THEN JUST DO IT THE GUID WAY LIKE IT IS IN THE GUIDE.

You now need to follow the installation wizard. Agree with the license statement, choose your installation volume, and you should see a screen where there is an "Install" button. DO NOT CLICK INSTALL YET! We are first going to customize our installation to make our install more "Mac-like" (unless you are doing Vanilla then you can just click Install). Click customize and find the "Vanilla" options. You can go ahead and check the vanilla kernel (9.4.0 with iAtkos 4 or 9.2.2 with iAtkos 2) and other vanilla options. Now click "Done" and then click "Install". The installer with verify the integrity of the installation DVD and then proceed to install OS X. When it is done reboot the machine as instructed.

Vanilla users can simply click "Install".

First Boot

Upon reboot boot from your hard disk. Vanilla users will have to boot from my boot cd but instead should choose 80 instead of 82 at the boot prompt. If all went well you should be presented with a boot screen similar to the one you got with the install DVD. It will probably say Darwin/x86 at the top. Hit a key to enter boot options and boot with the -v flag. This will allow you to see any problems that could occur upon the initial boot of OS X.

Note for iAtkos 4 users: iAtkos includes an outdated version of the Apple AHCI drivers. You MUST change your hard disk mode to ATA in your BIOS to boot up into OS X. Do not worry, however, we will get AHCI fixed later! This only affects iAtkos 4. iAtkos 2 works correctly.

Upon boot watch the Leopard movie and then go through the registration process. When you are done you are presented with your desktop. You have just successfully installed OS X Leopard on your Dell! Congratulations! Now it is time to tweak the system so that it works smoothly.

Updates

The very first thing we are going to do is update our system. This is so we don't go through a ton of effort configuring our system only to have it break when an update is installed.

10.5.2 PEOPLE ONLY

If you installed iAtkos 2, Kalyway, or any other 10.5.2 distribution, you are going to need to go back to the lovely Green Demon or Bay of Pirates and get the Kalyway 10.5.3 Combo Update. This will allow your 10.5.2 distribution to be successfully updated. From there you can simply use Apple's software update to update the rest of your system. You must also back up two kexts by the name of AppleAHCIPort.kext and IOAHCIFamily.kext. I will now explain both what a kext is and how to back them up.

Kexts are Kernel Extensions. They allow the Darwin kernel to utilize hardware. Those from a Linux background can look at kexts like modules. Those from a Windows background can look at kexts like typical device drivers. These kexts are stored in /System/Library/Extensions. All kexts located in that directory are automatically loaded by OS X upon startup. This is useful knowledge for if a specific kext is preventing your computer from booting, removing it from that directory could get you back into OS X.

To back up kexts, open /System/Library/Extensions in Finder. From there you can simply drag the correct kexts to either a backup folder or to your desktop. After you have installed your 10.5.3 update, you can drag the backed up kexts BACK into /System/Library/Extensions, overwriting the new kexts. You will have to put in your password to do either of these actions. Once you are done moving the old kexts back, you need to repair disk permissions. Go to /Applications/Utilities/ and open Disk Utility. Select your hard disk like you did before and like the "Repair Disk Permissions" button. It will run and make sure everything is A ok. From there you can reboot. When you reach the Darwin boot prompt, type update -v. This will update your system. The system will reboot once more and you should be set.

10.5.4 PEOPLE ONLY

People who are already at 10.5.4 can just open software update and install all of the available updates, including the Security Update. Reboot. We are now going to get AHCI working once again. We are basically going to follow the same procedure as above, replacing our newer IOAHCIFamily.kext and AppleAHCIPort.kext with an older version (There is a zip file attached with them on there). Once you unzip the AHCI kexts, move them into /System/Library/Extensions and overwrite the existing ones. From there, open Disk Utility in /Applications/Utilities/ and "Repair Disk Permissions". You should be able to reboot, enable AHCI in the BIOS, and once again boot into OS X.

Update to 10.5.6 NON Vanilla


Read the parts below about installing Chameleon 1.0.12 and getting a DSDT.aml for your laptop. Then follow the below link for applying the update.

iAtkos users and everyone else follow the directions here. This update procedure is outlined perfectly for newbies. Just follow his directions and you will be fine.

Update to 10.5.6 Vanilla

Upgrading to 10.5.6 requires a few extra steps. You must FIRST install Chameleon. See below. Once that is finished, visit netkas's blog post regarding PC EFI version 9 here. There is a download link that says "Bootloader". Download this and unzip it. You will see that a file called "boot" is unzipped. You need to move/copy this file to the root of your hard disk. There should already be a file named "boot" there that Chameleon installed. Overwrite this file with the netkas one. Then issue the following commands:



Now that we have EFI updated we need to get a proper DSDT.aml file for our machine.

ONLY USE THESE IF YOU HAVE AN NVIDIA CARD!

If you don't have nvidia, you will have to make your own using ~pcwiz's DSDT Patcher GUI

For the XPS 1330 use Superhai's: link
For the XPS 1530 use Brandon2004's (modified by Chrysaor): link

Once you have a DSDT.aml ensure that it is indeed named DSDT.aml (case-sensitive) and move it to your hard disk root. Once this is done run these commands:

M1530 users you should NOT need NVinject.kext or ClamshellDisplay.kext.



Reboot now to ensure everything is working properly.

You can now download and install 10.5.6 via software update or via combo update.


Update to 10.5.7 Vanilla

If you have successfully updated to 10.5.6 Vanilla then just run a software update and you should be fine. If you have yet to do so follow the steps for a 10.5.6 update and just run the 10.5.7 software update instead.

Installing Chameleon EFI

The easiest way to install Chameleon is to use the installer. Go to http://chameleon dot osx86 dot hu, download the installer, and run it. You should be good to go with Chameleon.

Networking

The Intel wireless chipsets do NOT work out of the box with OS X. There is currently an effort to develop drivers for them called iwidarwin. There is a sticky thread in the LAN and wireless section of the forum about the driver's current status. I implore you to there for the most up to date information regarding these drivers.

If you want wireless, buy a Dell Wireless 1505 off of ebay. This card works out of the box and can be installed alongside the Intel wireless card. To do this, pop off the plastic cover with a "C" next to it on the bottom of your laptop and install the wifi card in the WWAN slot (ensure WWAN is enabled in the BIOS). As for the antenna connectors, connect the black-gray wire to the black connection and the white-gray wire to the white connection on the card. It should work smoothly.

Dell 1490 Wireless cards are also known to work. Make sure you check the Dell part number before you order one.

It has been reported that Dell Wireless 1395 cards also work out of the box with OS X.

XPS M1330
The BCM5907 ethernet does NOT work in OS AT ALL. I am currently working to develop a driver for this chipset. In the meantime, the Apple Macbook Air USB to Ethernet adapter does work as does a Linksys USB200M USB to Ethernet adapter. You should be able to just plug it in and go.

XPS M1530
The M1530s use a Marvell Yukon 88E8040 ethernet chipset. Visit here for a driver.

Bluetooth works out of the box.

Sound

For sound you need two kexts: One enables the various inputs and outputs on your laptop and is called AppleHDA.kext. Get the best version for your laptop at talisman's thread:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=142521

The other kext you need is a kext called HDAEnabler. talisman also has that kext uploaded on the first page of his thread.

Graphics

This method is preferred:

I recently stopped using EFI strings for my graphics card and instead used nvinject. Download and install macgirls nvinject and put it in /System/Library/Extensions if you have an M1330. M1530 users see below. This kext will automatically detect your graphics card allowing for QE/CI/Rotation to work correctly as well as HDMI/VGA output. DO NOT USE THIS IF YOU ARE USING EFI STRINGS!!

M1530 users can get mirror display working as well as all other features using this kext:

M1530 users use Urthwyte's kext here

These kexts give QE/CI/QGL up to 10.5.6 with VGA output. Mirror display only works on the M1530 right now.

This is outdated
Graphics can be one of two things: really easy or a pain in the butt. Mine were a pain in the butt but I think I have finally figured out how to get them working. There are several methods of getting graphics working on your Dell. I will outline them below:

• NVInstaller utilizing NVInject -> This method detects your graphics card at boot and "injects" the appropriate hardware information into OS X's hardware tree. Uses nvinject.kext kernel extension.
• NVKush -> Like NVInject but uses nvkush.kext instead of nvinject.kext.
• gfx strings -> Uses the capabilities of Chameleon to directly inject the graphics card information into the hardware tree at boot. This is my preferred method and allows for dual monitors on the laptop.

If you are going to use nvinstaller or nvkush, download the appropriate installer packages and run them. After the installs complete, open OSx86 Tools, check the "Repair Permissions", "Set Extensions permissions", and "Clear Extensions Cache" check boxes and click "Run Selected Tasks". You should do this EVERY time you install or modify kexts. It could save you headaches later.

If you choose gfx strings, macgirl has made life easy for us. Visit her post here and download her updated NVCAP com.apple.Boot.plist. Unzip this and move it into /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/. Repair permissions with OSx86 Tools and reboot. Upon reboot you should get a nice resolution and the volume control icon should appear in the top taskbar (but sound won't work yet...). We now need to get QE/CI/QGL working.

QE stands for Quartz Extreme. CI stands for Core Image. QGL stans for Quartz Open GL. You want all three of these to be hardware accelerated to get the best performance out of your hackintosh. To check whether these are enabled, go to Apple->About This Mac and then click "More Info..." (or rather /Applications/Utilities/System Profiler). You then need to move to the Graphics/Displays option and check the "Display" section. You will see "Core Image". This should say "Hardware Accelerated". If it says "Software', CI is not working. "Quartz Extreme" should also say "Supported". QuartzGL probably won't even be on the list. We will enable that first.

To enable QuartzGL, open OSx86 Tools and click Enable / Disable Quartz GL. Click the "Enable Quartz GL". You are done. QE/CI are a bit harder.

Download and install Pacifist and the Apple Leopard Graphics Update. Mount the Leopard Graphics Update dmg. Open up Pacifist and then click "Open Package". Browse to your Leopard Graphics Update package. Open it in Pacifist. When it opens, right click on the "Contents of LeopardGraphicsUpdate1.0.pkg" package and choose "Install to Default Location". Use administrator privelages. When it is done running, use OSx86 Tools to repair permissions and clear the extension cache. Reboot. Check System Profiler to see if QE/CI are working. They should be.

End Outdated